Help Needed With FP4+ & HC110 Please...

[laudrup]

Hello Chaps & Chapess's,

I've got myself in a bit of a pickle and need some advice please.

I took a roll of portraits for a friend last night, he's a skint struggling actor and needed some head shots to send out to agents etc and asked me to take some shots to help him out.

I've been using mainly Kodak 400TX but thought I'd try something with a finer grain.

I used a roll of FP4+ rated at 125 and use Kodak HC110 (The weaker Dilution B bottle), the pressure is on because I've only taken one roll and not developed FP4 before and the massive dev chart recommends a development time of between 7 & 9 mins for dilution B of HC110.

Does anybody have any experience with this combo? Should i aim for 8 mins and hope for the best?

Any pointers or advise would be gratefully appreciated before I develop the film tonight!

Cheers

Ad

 

[BradS]

One nice thing about FP4+ is that it is quite forgiving. Eight minutes will produce a very nice negative.

 

[Eric Rose]

The same thing happened to me once. Essentially it's the same thing as N+2 so process accordingly.

 

[BradS]

Eric,

I don't think the OP is saying he underexposed...just that he used an unfamiliar film....right?

 

[Gerald Koch]

When you see development times given as a spread, such as 7 to 9 minutes, it usually means that your development time will vary depending on the contrast of the subject. That is. for high contrast situations 7 minutes is recommended and for low contrast 9 minutes. Before commiting to such a project, you really need to test your materials under the lighting conditions that will be used.

Published development times are recommendations and not hard and fast rules. Your development methods will also effect the actual times.

 

[Neal]

Dear Ad,

Rather than using the "Massive Develoment Chart", I suggest downloading the Ilford FP4+ data sheet. Suggested times for HC-110 can be found there. The "Massive Development Chart" is a wonderful resource, but manufacturer's recomendations seem more appealing to me.

Neal Wydra

 

[TLR]

The time published by Ilford is 9 minutes, but others think that it's too long, and the correct time for FP4+ in Hc-110 dilution B may be around 5 minutes, like the published time for HP5+.
Take a look at this developing time calculator. It is in german http://www.phototec.de/e_rechner.htm.

 

[Jim Noel]

Since you exposed the FP4+ at 125, you should use Ilford's suggested time of 9 minutes.

 

[Saganich]

I've tested this combination and used it quite a bit. I would recommend the 7 minute mark with light agitation, one minute initial than 5 seconds per minute thereafter. Ive tested this combo at 1:30 and showed an N developement time of 6 minutes. Beware that results can seem all over the place due to the fact that people are trying to measure a thick concentrate. Small error can lead to significant differences. I work in a laboratory and have access to special equipment for pipetting and measuring and I still find this stuff troublesom to mix accurately.

Chris